Basketball still Pinoy’s game

How much do Pinoys love basketball?
Passionately and it can be expressed in so many different ways all in one day.
The Burlington Life Begins@40 tournament opened last Saturday at the Barangay Bangkal Gym in Makati City. Ten teams from as far as Biñan and as nearby as Pasig gathered for hoops exclusively for guys 40 years old and above.
I was a guest player for the Paco Catholic School 1974 team along with comedian Brod Pete in the 50-and-over division. Advertising man Teddy Pereña, a colleague from the days we produced Burlington Basketball Tips for the PBA coverage in the late 1980s, organized the cagefest. His enthusiasm and drive are always hard to refuse.
It was delightful to share the game with guys who have not outgrown the sport, though they may no longer have the same stamina from their salad days.  The game’s the thing, and as long as your legs can take the twists and turns, there’s always a game somewhere you can join.
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Our team didn’t play after the opening rites and we had time to look for a place to catch two important games that were playing at the same time.
The National Sports Grill and Capricciosa restaurants in Greenbelt had setups for both games. I opted to stay with the crowd at the Smart Gilas-Jordan Fiba Asia semifinal game while peeking occasionally at the Ateneo-Far Eastern UAAP finals.
The fans cheered every Philippine conversion until their spirits were broken by an 11-0 Jordan blitz in the endgame.
At the top of the fourth, the Philippines uncorked a 7-0 run to come within a point of the huge but athletic Jordanians.  But when it really mattered, our gunners couldn’t strike from afar and even the easiest layups popped out. The Philippines lost 61-75.
It was a gallant stand in the tournament by Smart Gilas and it revived interest in our participation in Asian hoops. They may have fallen short for now but they made people believe again that the Pinoy cager is still very competitive against his Asian neighbors.
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Game One of the UAAP finals looked like it was going FEU’s way. The Tamaraws’ high-octane game ignited by Terrence Romeo caught Ateneo flat-footed in the first quarter. Some FEU fans in the restaurant were applauding the Tamaraws’ accurate sniping.
However, in the second period, the Eagles pinned their prey with an 11-0 bomb to tie the game at the half.
Checking the TV replay later at night, I counted a 15-4 Ateneo run that erected an 11-point lead at the end of the third. It was all the Eagles needed.
Power forward Nico Salva did not miss in eight attempts from the floor and eight tries from the charity line. Speed was also Ateneo’s main weapon in taking Game One, 82-64.
FEU needs to work on its defense to stop Ateneo because a shootout favors the Eagles’ march to a fourth straight crown.
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I returned to the Bangkal Gym for our game against the very organized and talented POW team of former PBA chairs Jun Cabalan and Buddy Encarnado. We were soundly beaten with a lead too large to remember.
It didn’t matter because it was all part of the Pinoy’s hoops day. Basketball is really still our game, regardless of age, background or skill.